Cop baited by cyber criminal
Woman unwittingly e-mails Negri police chief in scam bid
SEREMBAN: Even police officers are not spared by cyber criminals, as Negri Sembilan police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Noor Azam Jamaludin can testify.
He said a woman, who claimed to be from Aceh, Indonesia, wrote him an e-mail claiming she moved to England many years ago after marrying a Briton.
“She told me her husband died recently and she inherited £1.6mil (RM8.9mil).
“The woman said she wanted to bring the money to Malaysia to help students from poor families and since I was a Malaysian, I could help by giving her my bank account number,” he said, adding that she wanted him to become a partner with the money to be deposited in his account.
DCP Noor Azam said this went on for three months and one day he got an e-mail from the woman alleging that the money had already reached Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
“She said I had to fork out some money to get the money out from KLIA but I said I could not do that as we had laws in our country.
“When I suggested we bring in the money via a moneychanger, she stopped contacting me,” he said.
DCP Noor Azam said despite the many reminders from the authorities, it was unfortunate that the number of cyber crime cases in the state had risen.
The number of people who were duped when buying products online had increased from 109 in the first eight months of 2016 to 286 in the same period this year.
Meanwhile, the number of Macau scams where perpetrators claimed to be policemen or from Bank Negara has also increased.
Cases where victims were told they had committed a crime and instructed to transfer money into a bank account jumped to 84 during the same period from 22 previously, incurring losses of RM1.6mil.
“Loan scams, where victims were offered easy loans but were told to pay hefty deposits up front before the loans could be released to them, rose from 34 cases to 103 involving almost RM700,000,” he said.
DCP Noor Azam advised those who received such e-mails to contact the Police Cyber Crimes Investigation and Response Centre at 03-2610 1555 or the state hotline at 06-761 9999 to verify the information.